Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field eBook

The Rebels made a fierce attack upon the garrison
at Milliken’s Bend. For a few moments during
the fight the prospects of their success were very
good. The negroes composing the garrison had not
been long under arms, and their discipline was far
from perfect. The Rebels obtained possession
of a part of our works, but were held at bay by the
garrison, until the arrival of a gun-boat turned the
scale in our favor. The odds were against us
at the outset, but we succeeded in putting the enemy
to flight.

In this attack the Rebels made use of a movable breast-work,
consisting of a large drove of mules, which they kept
in their front as they advanced upon the fort.
This breast-work served very well at first, but grew
unmanageable as our fire became severe. It finally
broke and fled to the rear, throwing the Rebel lines
into confusion. I believe it was the first instance
on record where the defenses ran away, leaving the
defenders uncovered. It marked a new, but unsuccessful,
phase of war. An officer who was present at the
defense of Milliken’s Bend vouches for the truth
of the story.

The Rebels captured a portion of the garrison, including
some of the white officers holding commissions in
negro regiments. The negro prisoners were variously
disposed of. Some were butchered on the spot
while pleading for quarter; others were taken a few
miles on the retreat, and then shot by the wayside.
A few were driven away by their masters, who formed
a part of the raiding force, but they soon escaped
and returned to our lines. Of the officers who
surrendered as prisoners of war, some were shot or
hanged within a short distance of their place of capture.
Two were taken to Shreveport and lodged in jail with
one of the captured lessees. One night these officers
were taken from the jail by order of General Kirby
Smith, and delivered into the hands of the provost-marshal,
to be shot for the crime of accepting commissions
in negro regiments. Before morning they were
dead.

Similar raids were made at other points along the
river, where plantations were being cultivated under
the new system. At all these places the mules
were stolen and the negroes either frightened or driven
away. Work was suspended until the plantations
could be newly stocked and equipped. This suspension
occurred at the busiest time in the season. The
production of the cotton was, consequently, greatly
retarded. On some plantations the weeds grew faster
than the cotton, and refused to be put down.
On others, the excellent progress the weeds had made,
during the period of idleness, rendered the yield
of the cotton-plant very small. Some of the plantations
were not restocked after the raid, and speedily ran
to waste.

In 1863, no lessee made more than half an ordinary
crop of cotton, and very few secured even this
return. Some obtained a quarter or an eighth
of a bale to the acre, and some gathered only one bale
where they should have gathered twelve or twenty.
A few lost money in the speculation. Some made
a fair profit on their investment, and others realized
their expectations of an enormous reward. Several
parties united their interest on three or four plantations
in different localities, so that a failure in one
quarter was offset by success in another.